LIMANS AND COAST-LINE. 



281 



float a man-of-war, and the name, which in Tatar means "joort," seems to show 

 that at no distant epoch some of them still served as harbours of refxige. But 

 they must all be gradually filled in by the alluvia of the rivers, and one has 

 already entirely disappeared between those of Tiligul and Berezan. Owing to the 

 frequent variations in their saline character, they contain no fish beyond some 

 annelida and Crustacea described by Nordmann and Milne-Edwards. Their shores 



Fig. 139. — Li.MAXS IV THE East of Bessarabia. 

 Scale 1 : 460,000. 



5 Miles. 



are very unhealthy in autumn, but at other times they seem beneficial in the case 

 of certain disorders. 



The southern seaboard of Russia presents a surprising regularity of outline. 

 The steppe terminates on the Euxine with a steep cliff fringed by a narrow strip 

 of beach, and south of the Dnieper liman the coast-line assumes a remarkable 

 elegance of form. Those long lines of sand gradually thrown up by the waves 

 seem to follow the current from east to M^est, and then southwards to the Danube, 

 164 



